The Council of Europe ministers stressed that the "unconditional obligation to implement the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgments is a shared responsibility of Turkey, including the judiciary."

The statement was released at the "Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments" meeting.

The COE "deeply regretted Osman Kavala’s ongoing detention and urged his immediate release. While welcoming and encouraging high level contacts, the  ministers urged general measures to ensure full independence and impartiality of the judiciary, including from the executive branch, in particular structural independence of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors."

Background

Businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala has contributed to numerous civil society organizations in Turkey since the '90s. 

On 1 November 2017, he was arrested on both Article 309 and Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code. Article 309 (“attempts to abolish, replace or prevent the implementation of, through force and violence, the constitutional order of the republic of Turkey”) was related to an investigation into the 2016 attempted Turkish coup d'état attempt, and Article 312 (“the use of force and violence, to abolish the government of the Republic of Turkey or to prevent it, in part or in full, from fulfilling its duties”) was related to an investigation on Gezi Park protests.

The ECHR pronounced its judgment on 10 December 2019, and said that Kavala’s "arrest and pre-trial detention took place in the absence of evidence to support a reasonable suspicion he had committed an offence (violation of Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Convention) and pursued an ulterior purpose, namely to silence him and dissuade other human rights defenders (violation of Article 18 taken in conjunction with Article 5, paragraph 1)."